Task assignment method, computer program product and task assignment system

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a computer-implemented method ( 1 ) of assigning a task to a mobile communication device ( 212, 222 ) belonging to a pool ( 210, 220 ) of mobile communication devices, wherein each mobile communications device is associated with a trusted owner and is locatable by means of location information, the method comprising generating ( 10 ) a task to be performed; generating a set of task locations at which the task can be performed; receiving ( 20 ) location information for said mobile communications devices; deriving ( 30 ) a location for each mobile communications device from said location information; using the derived location to calculate ( 40 ) a cost score for each mobile communication device, said cost score indicating the cost of the trusted owner of said mobile communication device to reach a target location; and assigning ( 60 ) the task to a selected location in said set and to one of said mobile communications devices, wherein the task is assigned to the one of said mobile communications devices based on the calculated cost scores. A computer program product including program code for executing this method on a computer processor and a system adapted to execute this method are also disclosed.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is the U.S. National Phase application under 35 U.S.C.§ 371 of International Application No. PCT/EP2014/072812, filed Oct. 24,2014, published as WO 2015/059259 on Apr. 30, 2015, which claims thebenefit of European Patent Application Number 13194087.6 filed Nov. 22,2013 and International Application No. PCT/CN2013/001285, filed Oct. 25,2013. These applications are hereby incorporated by reference herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a computer-implemented method ofassigning a task to a mobile communication device belonging to a pool ofmobile communications devices, wherein each mobile communications deviceis associated with a trusted owner and is locatable by means of locationinformation.

The present invention further relates to a computer program productcomprising computer program code for executing such a method on acomputer.

The present invention yet further relates to a system adapted toimplement such a method.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In modern society, electronic communication media such as the Internetand mobile phones are becoming more and more commonplace in helping todeliver services to their users. As such, these media can be used aspowerful tools to increase quality of life.

This is for instance of particular relevance where these media can beused to safeguard the well-being of its users, for instance in the caseof frail and elderly people having restricted mobility due to their ageand/or physical condition. Such elderly people typically require thehelp of others to be able to cope with everyday life, especially whenstill living independently. It is well-documented that it is importantthat elderly people can live independently for as long as possible. Thisusually is better for their mental well-being and reduces the burden onthe health care system because around the clock care does not have to beprovided. The latter is of course of particular importance as improvedliving standards and healthcare means that the world is facing an ageingpopulation.

Elderly people may require assistance for a range of tasks. Forinstance, there may be a medical emergency, in which case the elderlyperson may require a medical professional to visit them, or the elderlyperson may require a non-urgent task to be performed, e.g. thecollection of medication from a remote dispensary, a list of shopping tobe done, repairs to their house to be performed and so on.

A number of solutions exist that can be used by elderly people to getsupport for such tasks. For instance, Z. Lv et al. in Green Computingand Communications, 2010 IEEE/ACM, International Conference on Cyber,Physical and Social Computing, pages 699-705 (E-ISBN 978-0-7695-4331-4)describe a mobile health monitoring system called iCare for the elderly.The system uses wireless body sensors and smart phones to monitor thewell-being of the elderly. When detecting an emergency, the smart phonewill automatically alert pre-assigned people and call the ambulance ofthe emergency centre.

US 2011/045841 A1 discloses an alert system that determines a physicallocation associated with a task in a task list; compare the physicallocation of the contact with the physical location associated with thetask; determine when the physical location of the contact matches thephysical location associated with the task; and transmit an alertmessage indicating the contact and the task. However, a drawback of thissystem is that it is by no means guaranteed that the contact in theclosest vicinity to the task location at the time of determining thelocation of that contact is the most appropriate contact for handlingthe task. This therefore can lead to tasks being completed withunacceptable delays or not completed at all. Therefore, there exists aneed to schedule such tasks in a more intelligent manner.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention seeks to provide a computer-implemented method ofassigning a task to a mobile communication device in a more intelligentmanner.

The present invention further seeks to provide a computer programproduct comprising computer program code for executing such a method onthe one or more processors of a computer system.

The present invention yet further seeks to provide a system adapted toexecute such a computer program product.

According to an aspect, there is provided a computer-implemented methodof assigning a task to a mobile communication device belonging to a poolof mobile communication devices, wherein each mobile communicationsdevice is associated with a trusted owner and is locatable by means oflocation information, the method comprising generating a task to beperformed; generating a set of task locations at which the task can beperformed; receiving location information for said mobile communicationsdevices; deriving a location for each mobile communication device fromsaid location information; using the derived location to calculate acost score for each mobile communication device, said cost scoreindicating the cost of the trusted owner of said mobile communicationdevice to reach a target location; and assigning the task to a selectedlocation in said set and to one of said mobile communication devices,wherein the task is assigned to the one of said mobile communicationdevices based on the calculated cost scores.

The present invention provides a task assignment method in which alocation determined for a trusted owner of a mobile communication deviceis used as a parameter in a cost function to determine the cost (e.g.effort) required by that owner to complete the task if assigned to himor her.

For instance, in an embodiment the step of calculating said cost scorecomprises retrieving information regarding the travel conditions betweenthe derived location and the task location and including saidinformation in said calculation. This therefore gives a more accuratereflection of the time and effort required to complete a task from agiven location, which level of accuracy cannot be achieved if onlydistance between the current location of a trusted user and the physicallocation of a task is considered.

In an alternative embodiment, the task to be performed at a tasklocation is to be performed at a later point in time, the method furthercomprising tracking the location of said mobile communication devicesusing the received location information; for each mobile communicationdevice, determining a set of routes commonly used by its trusted ownerfrom the tracked locations; wherein the step of deriving said locationcomprises selecting a likely route from said set of routes; andextrapolating a future location of the trusted owner at the later pointin time from the selected route; wherein the step of calculating saidcost score comprises calculating a distance between the task locationand the extrapolated future location.

In this embodiment, the current locations of the various trusted ownersare being (continuously or periodically) monitored in order to establishtravelling patterns for these owners, for instance to establish whichroute a trusted user usually takes on a particular day of the week andat which time of day, e.g. a route to and from work. Such routes may beused to extrapolate an expected position for the trusted owner at thepoint in time at which the task requires performing, such that the costfor performing the task by that trusted owner can be more accuratelyestimated, as in this scenario the location of the trusted owner at thetime the task is being issued can be of limited relevance.

The computer-implemented method may further comprise adapting the set ofroutes associated with a trusted owner based on additional locationtracking information of the mobile communication device of said owner inorder to improve the accuracy of the route prediction.

In an embodiment, the set of task locations includes a plurality of tasklocations, the method further comprising selecting the task locationfrom the set based on the calculated cost scores. This further improvesthe intelligence of the task assignment process as it is not presumedthat a physical location of the task that is nearest to the physicallocation from which the task is requested is the most convenientphysical location for performing the task.

For instance, the step of assigning the task to a selected task locationto one of said mobile communication devices based on the calculated costscores may comprise assigning the task to a combination of the tasklocation from said set and the mobile communication device having thelowest overall cost score. In this embodiment, the task location isselected based on which trusted owner can deliver the task with minimumcost to ensure that the task is completed as efficiently as possible,which is also in the interest of the requester of the task, e.g. anelderly person awaiting delivery of a requested article.

In case the task includes the delivery of one or more items (service orproducts) to a destination such as the home of the requester of thetask, the step of calculating the cost score may further includecalculating the cost score indicating the cost of the trusted owner ofsaid mobile communication device to reach said destination from the tasklocation in said set. This further improves the accuracy andintelligence of the task assignment process.

In an embodiment, the computer-implemented method further comprisesassigning a preference score to each trusted owner, wherein the step ofassigning the task to one of said mobile communication devices is basedon a combination of the preference score and the calculated cost score.This ensures that a trade-off is made between task completion by apreferred individual and most efficient task completion. This isimportant for instance in scenarios where the task has to be completedwith a certain urgency, e.g. collection of medication, and where therequester of the task will accept execution of the task by a lesspreferred individual if this individual can perform the task atsignificantly lower cost or in the case of unavailability of thepreferred individual.

The step of generating the task may comprise selecting the task from apool of tasks, the method further comprising accessing a list of mobilecommunication devices each associated with a trusted owner, wherein eachtrusted owner is associated with a subset of said tasks; and dynamicallycreating the pool of mobile communication devices by selecting trustedowners comprising the generated task in said subset. This ensures thattasks are only assigned to individuals considered suitable to performthe task.

The computer-implemented method may further comprise dynamicallycreating the pool of mobile communication devices from a list of mobilecommunication devices each associated with a trusted owner based onavailability information for said trusted owners. This ensures thattasks are only assigned to individuals that are available to perform thetask.

The task may include the purchase of an article, wherein the set of tasklocations is compiled from a plurality of task locations based on atleast one of availability information and price information of saidarticle at said task locations. This for instance ensures that only tasklocations are selected that have the article in stock and/or can providethe article at a price that is acceptable to the requester of the task.Such availability and price information may for instance be retrievedfrom the Internet, e.g. by automatically accessing websites of thesellers of such articles or price comparison websites.

In accordance with another aspect, there is provided a computer programproduct comprising a computer-readable storage medium including computerprogram code which when executed on one or more processors of a computersystem implements the method according to one or more embodiments of thepresent invention. Non-limiting examples of such a computer-readablestorage medium include a CD, DVD, flash memory card, a USB memory stick,a random access memory, a read-only memory, a computer hard disk, astorage area network, a network server, an Internet server and so on.

In accordance with yet another aspect, there is provided a systemcomprising the aforementioned computer program product and at least oneprocessor adapted to execute said computer program code. Such a systembenefits from the improved routing of tasks to trusted owners of mobilecommunication devices as explained in more detail above. Non-limitingexamples of such a system include a desktop computer, a laptop computer,a tablet computer, a mobile communications device such as a smart phoneor a network comprising two or more of such devices.

The system may further comprise a database architecture including a listof trusted owners of mobile communication devices, a list of events anda list of event response logs in order to assign tasks to theappropriate task location and trusted owner of the mobile communicationdevice to which the task will be assigned.

The system may further comprise a user interface for accessing saiddatabase architecture to allow a system owner to amend the databasearchitecture, e.g. to update the database architecture by adding ordeleting trusted owners, events, event history and so on.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the invention are described in more detail and by way ofnon-limiting examples with reference to the accompanying drawings,wherein:

FIG. 1 schematically depicts a task assignment architecture inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 schematically depicts a task assignment method in accordance withan embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 schematically depicts a task assignment method in accordance withanother embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 schematically depicts an aspect of a task assignment method inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 5 schematically depicts an aspect of a task assignment method inaccordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

It should be understood that the Figures are merely schematic and arenot drawn to scale. It should also be understood that the same referencenumerals are used throughout the Figures to indicate the same or similarparts.

The present invention relates to a system and method for assigning atask to a mobile communications device of someone who is shortlisted orotherwise selected as a potential candidate to perform the requestedtask. Whereas in the prior art task assignment to a selected person isachieved on the basis of a distance between the location of the selectedperson and the task location, as for instance disclosed in US2011/045841 A1, the present invention is based on the insight that incertain scenarios basing the assignment decision on distance from apresent location only can lead to an inaccurate or sub-optimalassignment process. This may be because it is not straightforward toarrive at the target location from a location considered nearest to thetarget location, or because at a desired time for the performance of thetask the actual location of the potential candidate to execute the taskmay be different to the location of that person at the time of assigningthe task, in which case a more complex (predictive) routing problemneeds solving in order to ensure that the task is assigned to the mostappropriate person.

To this end, embodiments of the present invention use the presentlocation of a candidate to perform the task to calculate a cost valueexpressing the effort or degree of difficulty for that candidate toreach the task location from their present location.

In an embodiment, this cost value may be calculated by consideringenvironmental factors such as road or traffic conditions, weatherconditions, and so on to establish whether the candidate will facedifficulty in reaching the task location. For instance, the cost valuemay be an expression of the amount of time it will take for thecandidate to reach the task location, which for instance may bedetermined based on projected average speed over the route between thepresent location of the candidate and the task location and/or based onchanges to the route that are required to avoid encountering adverseenvironmental factors such as traffic jams, road works, road closuresdue to adverse weather conditions or road works, and so on.

In another embodiment, this cost value may be calculated byextrapolating a future location of the candidate that is relevant forthe desired (i.e. specified) task completion time from a location of thecandidate at the time of issuing the task assignment request, forinstance by establishing travelling patterns for that candidate,selecting the appropriate expected travelling pattern for that candidatebased on actual location or day of the week for instance and calculatingthe extra distance the candidate would have to cover in order tocomplete the task. This therefore ensures that the task is assigned tothe person that has to deviate the smallest amount from his/her intendedroute in order to complete the task. This may be combined withcalculating the expected difficulty of that person to reach the tasklocation from the extrapolated future location, which for instance canbe achieved if the one or more routes between the extrapolated futurelocation and the task location exhibit predictable traffic conditions,for instance traffic jams occurring at set times during the week,scheduled road works for which information has been collected expressingthe delay to travelling over that road and so on. In an embodiment, thecost value may be expressed as the additional amount of time it willtake for the candidate to complete the task when deviating from theirintended route in order to complete the task.

FIG. 1 schematically depicts an architecture for implementing a taskassignment method according to an embodiment of the present invention.At the heart of this architecture is a system 100, which typically iscontrolled by the person requesting the execution of the task, forinstance an elderly person. The system 100 comprises one or moreprocessors 110 adapted to execute the various steps of theaforementioned method, as will be explained in more detail later. In anembodiment, the one or more processors 110 may be connected to theInternet 250 in any suitable manner, e.g. via a wired or wirelessInternet connection. The system 100 further comprises a databasearchitecture including database components 120, 130 and 140, which maybe discrete databases or may be subsections of a single database. In anembodiment, the system 100 may further comprise a user interface 150 aswill be explained in more detail later.

System 100 may be implemented on any suitable device or cluster ofdevices, e.g. one or more of a personal computer, which may be a desktopor laptop computer, a tablet computer, a mobile communication devicesuch as a mobile phone, e.g. a smart phone, or a personal digitalassistant and so on. In case of such a distributed system 100, thevarious components of the distributed system 100 may be adapted tocommunicate with each other in any suitable manner, e.g. over a wired orwireless network using any suitable communication protocol.

The architecture further comprises one or more groups of mobilecommunication devices recognized as belonging to persons consideredsuitable to perform or execute the task to be assigned. Such personswill be referred to as trusted owners of such mobile communicationdevices and may for instance be friends or relatives of the personassigning the task, or may be medical professionals such as a medicalconsultant, general practitioner, carer and so on. Each group may beconsidered to refer to persons suitable to perform a particular type oftask, with different groups referring to different types of tasks. Forinstance, the persons in one group may be considered suitable to performshopping tasks or to run general errands whereas the persons in anothergroup may be considered suitable to attend to tasks of a medical nature,e.g. medical emergencies.

In FIG. 1, a first group 210 comprising a plurality of mobilecommunication devices 212 and a second group 220 comprising a singlemobile communication device 222 are shown by way of non-limiting exampleonly. It should be understood that the architecture may comprise anysuitable number of groups comprising any suitable number of mobilecommunication devices such as mobile (smart) phones, personal digitalassistants, tablets and so on.

In an embodiment, the one or more processors 110 may be adapted tointeract with the various other components of the system 100, and mayfurther be adapted to train and execute models and algorithms belongingto the task assignment method, e.g. a computer program implementing thismethod. The computer program communicates with the apps on the mobilecommunication devices of the trusted owners who have signed up toperform tasks for the issuer of the task such as a specific elderlyperson.

In an embodiment, each mobile communication device 212, 222 continuouslyor periodically provide information about the present location of themobile communication device. To this end, the mobile communicationdevice 212, 222 may for instance comprise an app that generates suchlocation information and forwards this information to the system 100 inany suitable manner, e.g. using mobile telephony signals or theInternet. The location information may be associated with the locationof the trusted owner of the mobile communication device 212, 222. Thisessentially assumes that the mobile communication device 212, 222 is inthe possession of its trusted owner. The location information may beobtained in any suitable manner, for instance using GPS data which canbe used to determine the location of the mobile communication device212, 222 with high accuracy or using cell information of the mobiletelephony network that the mobile communication device 212, 222 formspart of. This yields a more approximate location for the mobilecommunication device 212, 222.

In an embodiment, the one or more processors 110 may be adapted toretrieve resource information such as the locations and open hours ofvarious facilities and shops and the availability and prices of goods inthose shops from the Internet 250, for instance by collecting data fromrelevant websites through simple web services. Such resource informationmay for instance be used when multiple candidate task locations areavailable in order to determine which task location should be selected.

Such selection may for instance be simply based on the availability of adesired article and/or the cost of the desired article or alternativelysuch a selection may require more complex decision-making algorithms inwhich the availability and/or cost of the desired article are combinedwith the respective cost values of the candidate trusted owners forexecuting the task. For instance, a task location may be selected forwhich the product of the cost of the article and the cost value for thecandidate has a minimum value. It will be apparent to the skilled personthat such a task location selection algorithm may take many suitableforms and indeed may be configured by individual users in order to meetwith their approval or needs.

At this point, the purpose of the database components 120, 130 and 140will be explained in more detail. The first database component 120 is anevent repository, which consists of all the possible types of eventsthat can be handled by the system 100. The event repository, forexample, can include tasks such as responding to a medical event such asa fall or some sickness, responding to a social condition such asfeeling depressed or feeling lonely, purchasing a grocery item,collecting a prescribed medicament, arranging a household repair and soon.

In an embodiment, the event repository 120 may be configurable such thatif a specific event cannot be found in the event repository, the system100 may provide the user with the option of adding the desired event ortask to the event repository 120, for instance through the userinterface 150. The user may configure the event repository 120 in anysuitable manner, for instance by providing a description of an event ortask to be added to the event repository and the system 100 matching thespecified event or task to the closest event or task in a predefinedlist. The user may specify the event or task in any suitable manner,e.g. using a keyboard, mouse, voice recognition software and so on.

The second database component 130 may comprise a preference repositorycontaining the preferences of the user and/or the preferences of thevarious trusted owners of the mobile communication devices 212 and 222in the various groups 210 and 220. In an embodiment, the user of thesystem 100 may specify a preference score for each trusted owner inorder to establish which trusted owner to contact first or not tocontact at all for certain tasks. The preferences of the trusted ownerscould include, for example, not to be disturbed for certainnon-emergency tasks, or only to be disturbed during certain times of theday, and so on. The preferences of the user and the trusted owner mayfor instance be taken into account when assigning the task to aparticular trusted owner. In an embodiment, a task may be assigned to atrusted owner based on his/her preference score and the calculated costvalue in order to find the optimal trade-off between user preference andinconvenience to the trusted owners.

The third database component 140 may be a historical database thatcontains information about the past events or tasks issued by the userof the system 100. This may include information about past events type,past locational data, information displayed to the user in the past,recommendations generated and displayed in the past, and the actualactions taken by the user in the past. In some embodiments, users may becategorized by the system 100 into various categories using simplesocioeconomic and physical characteristics such as age, gender,educational and professional background, body type, physical health,emotional health, family details, and so on.

In an embodiment, the historical database may further includeinformation about the historical events of suitable other users, e.g.users belonging to the same category. This further information may becollected in any suitable manner, for instance by communication withother instances of the system 100 over the Internet. Such data fromother users can be especially helpful when a new user starts using thesystem 100, for instance to calibrate initial learning models. In anembodiment, after an issued task is considered completed, relevant datarelating to the task completion process may be entered into thehistorical database, such that the system 100 can rely on this relevantdata the next time the same or a similar task is to be issued.

At this point, a non-limiting example of a user interface 150 will beprovided. It should be understood however that the user interface 150may take any suitable shape or form. The user interface 150 may beimplemented on the same device comprising the one or more processors 110or may be implemented on a separate device such as a laptop computer,tablet computer or mobile communications device such as a mobile phonethat can communicate user instructions with the one or more processors110.

As shown in FIG. 1, the user interface may consist of 3 different parts.A real-time interface 152 may be used by the users of the system 100 toreport events or tasks, to browse information provided by the system100, to explore the suggested/recommended task assignments, and toselect a specific trusted owner to which the task is to be assigned. Forinstance, the user of the system 100 may be presented with a list oftrusted owners for which a suitable cost value has been calculated, e.g.a cost value below a defined threshold, such that the user can select apreferred trusted owner from this list.

Alternatively, a task may be automatically assigned to a trusted ownerby the system 100, in which case the user is simply informed of theassignment decision and the trusted owner to which the task has beenassigned. This is for instance useful in case of an emergency situationwhere the user may not be interested in selecting a particular trustedowner but simply wants to ensure that a suitable trusted owner asspecified in the system 100, e.g. in the event repository 120, isselected that can respond to the emergency as soon as possible.

The user interface 150 may further comprise a preference entry interface154, which is to be periodically used by the user to enter and updatethe user's preferences. The preference entry interface 154 may forinstance be configured to communicate with the preference repository130.

The user interface 150 may further comprise a post decision interface156, which is to be used to enter information on what was the actualpath of response taken after the task was assigned and completed. Thepost decision interface 156 may for instance be configured tocommunicate with the historical database 140 in order to store thisinformation in the historical database 140.

A task may be assigned to a trusted owner in any suitable manner. Forinstance, the trusted owner may be made aware of the task assignmentusing any suitable communication channel such as a (automated) phonecall, a text message, by e-mail, by tweet and so on.

An embodiment of a method of assigning tasks using the system 100 willnow be explained in more detail with the aid of FIG. 2. In theremainder, it will be assumed that a task selected by the user of thesystem 100 to be assigned to one of the trusted owners will be assignedto a trusted owner belonging to the first group 210. It should beunderstood that this is by way of non-limiting example only.

The method 1 starts by progressing to step 10 in which a task to beperformed at a selected location is generated. For instance, the user ofthe system 100 may select the task from a list of tasks stored in theevent repository 120 or may specify a task or event requiring a responseby a trusted owner, which specified task or event is matched by the oneor more processors 110 to a single task or event or a selection of tasksor events in the event repository 120, after which the user may confirmthe appropriate task or event. This step may further compriseidentifying the appropriate group of trusted owners to assign the taskto. This may for instance be achieved by retrieving this group from theappropriate database component, e.g. the preference repository 130. Asmentioned before, it will be assumed by way of non-limiting example thatthe appropriate group is group 210.

The method then proceeds to step 20, in which location information iscollected for the various trusted owners that are considered suitable toperform the task selected in step 10, i.e. the trusted owners within thegroup 210, by means of their mobile communication devices 212.Alternatively, step 20 may be performed at any suitable time, that is,step 20 is not necessarily performed after completion of step 10, aswill be explained in more detail later. Where relevant, step 20 mayfurther comprise retrieving relevant information such task location,e.g. the location(s) where certain articles may be purchased, theavailability and/or price of such articles at these locations,environmental information such as traffic and/or weather conditions inthe vicinity of these locations, and so on. Such information may beretrieved in any suitable manner, for instance from the Internet 250,from at least one of mobile telephony signals, radio traffic informationsignals, traffic information embedded in GPS signals and so on. Thesystem 100 may be configured to directly receive such signals or to havesuch signals relayed to the system 100, e.g. via the Internet 250. Forinstance, the system 100 may be subscribed to an Internet-based serviceproviding such information.

In step 30, the location information obtained from the mobilecommunication devices 212 of the trusted owners belonging to group 210may be used to determine the respective present locations of the trustedowners. In an embodiment the location information is obtained at asingle point in time such that the location information is translatedinto the location at that point in time, e.g. the present location.

In an alternative embodiment, the system 100 tracks the locationinformation for the various trusted owners over a period of time toestablish travel patterns for these owners, such that the presentlocation of a trusted owner may be assumed by evaluating the establishedtravel patterns and selecting the appropriate travel pattern for thatpoint in time. For instance, during weekdays, a trusted owner may followthe same route to and from work at approximately the same time of day,whereas at weekends, the trusted owner may exhibit predictable travelbehavior for instance from and to a sports club.

This information can be used to assume the present location of such atrusted owner as a function of day of the week and time of day such thatit is not necessary in this embodiment to perform step 20 uponcompletion of step 10. Instead, as previously explained, step 20 istypically performed continuously or periodically in order to establishthe travelling behavioral patterns of the trusted users. This forinstance reduces the risk that the present location of a trusted ownerof one of the mobile communication devices 212 cannot be determinedfollowing the generation of the task to be performed at a given locationin step 10, for instance in situations where the mobile communicationdevice 212 has lost connectivity with its network.

In an embodiment, the system 100 may further determine the availabilityof the trusted owners in group 210. This for instance may be achieved byutilizing latest availability and preference information as provided bythe trusted owners for instance through their calendars or any otherinterfaces on their mobile communication device or any other electronicdevice that can be accessed by the system 100, such as a tabletcomputer, desktop computer, laptop computer or the like. Thisavailability information may be used to remove unavailable trustedowners from the group 210 to ensure that the task is assigned to anavailable trusted owner only. The availability information may beobtained at any suitable point in time, for instance prior to orsubsequent to determining the present locations of the trusted owners aspreviously explained.

Method 1 may subsequently proceed to step 40 in which a cost score iscalculated for each (available) trusted owner in group 210. Aspreviously explained, the cost score expresses the amount of effort(e.g. amount of time) it takes a trusted owner to complete the task tobe assigned. This may simply be a cost score based on the amount ofeffort required to reach the task location from a starting location,which may be the present location or a future location extrapolated fromthe present location as will be explained in more detail later.

Alternatively, the cost score may further include the effort it requiresto deliver the task from the task location to the home of the user ofthe system 100. This for instance may be relevant if more than one tasklocation is to be considered; a task location nearby the home of theuser may be less suitable than a task location nearby the relevantlocation of a trusted owner of a mobile communication device 212, whichcan be captured in the cost score by considering the delivery effort.

A non-limiting example embodiment of a suitable algorithm forcalculating such a cost score is given below. It should be immediatelyunderstood that many suitable algorithms can be readily provided by theskilled person and that such alternative algorithms are also consideredto fall within the scope of the present invention.

The algorithm may be constructed as follows. Let L₀ represent thelocation of the home of the user of the system 100, e.g. an elderlyperson requiring assistance. Let (L₁ ^(P)(t), L₂ ^(P)(t), . . . , L_(N)^(P)(t)) denote the locations of the N trusted owners at time t. Let (L₁^(S), L₂ ^(S), . . . , L_(M) ^(S)) denote the task locations, e.g.locations of facilities or shops where a certain product or service isavailable, e.g. a supermarket, grocery, pharmacy, a plumber, and so on.Let TT (A, B, t) denote the cost score, e.g. travel time from location Ato location B, when starting the trip at time t. This function iscontinuously calculated and updated using traffic and other real-timedata feeds being received from the Internet and/or other suitableinformation sources as previously explained.

The earliest time when the user of the system 100, e.g. an elderlyperson, can access a product or service that is available at j^(th)facility with the help from trusted owner i who becomes available attime t, is given by:t+TT(L _(i) ^(P)(t),L _(j) ^(S) ,t)+TT(L _(j) ^(S) ,L ₀ ,TT(L _(i)^(P)(t),L _(j) ^(S) ,t)+t).

If the product or service is available at multiple locations, namely,(L₁ ^(S), L₂ ^(S), . . . , L_(M) ^(S)), then the earliest point in timewhen the user of system 100 can access the product or service with thehelp from trusted owner i who becomes available at time t is:min_(j∈{1, . . . ,M})(t+TT(L _(i) ^(P)(t),L _(j) ^(S) ,t)+TT(L _(j) ^(S),L ₀ ,TT(L _(i) ^(P)(t),L _(j) ^(S) ,t)+t)).

If the trusted owner i is only available to start their journey duringtime period [t_(j1), t_(j2)], for instance after work, then thisequation gets modified to:min_(j∈{1, . . . ,M},t∈[t) _(i1) _(,t) _(i2) _(])(t+TT(L _(i) ^(P)(t),L_(j) ^(S) ,t)+TT(L _(j) ^(S) ,L ₀ ,TT(L _(i) ^(P)(t),L _(j) ^(S),t)+t)).

Furthermore, if multiple trusted owners located at (L₁ ^(P)(t), L₂^(P)(t), . . . , L_(N) ^(P)(t)) are available to help the user of thesystem 100, e.g. the elderly person, then the earliest the product orservice can reach the elderly is given by:

$\min\limits_{{i \in {\{{1,\;\ldots\;,\; N}\}}},{j \in {\{{1,\;\ldots\;,\; M}\}}},{t \in {\lbrack{t_{j\; 1},t_{j\; 2}}\rbrack}}}\left( {t + {{TT}\left( {{L_{i}^{P}(t)},L_{j}^{S},t} \right)} + \left. \quad{{TT}\left( {L_{j}^{S},L_{0},{{{TT}\left( {{L_{i}^{P}(t)},L_{j}^{S},t} \right)} + t}} \right)} \right)} \right.$

In the above example, a task is typically assigned to a selected trustedowner based on the optimum convenience to the user of the system 100,i.e. the algorithm is based on getting the service or product to theuser as soon as possible. It should be understood that this is by way ofnon-limiting example only. It is for instance equally feasible to derivean algorithm in which the service or product is provided to the user ofthe system 100 as a function of minimal disruption to the daily routineof the trusted owners of the mobile communication devices 212. In yetanother embodiment, the algorithm may be provided that proposes toassign or assigns the task to a subset of trusted owners or to aparticular trusted owner based on a cost score that is based on bothminimum waiting time for the user and minimum disruption to the dailyroutine of the particular user in order to find an optimal compromisebetween these two potentially conflicting interests. The disruption tothe daily routine of the suitable trusted owners may for instance betaken into consideration if the task to be assigned is a non-urgenttask, e.g. a task related to an event that is not classed as anemergency.

Optional step 50 may also be considered when calculating the cost scorein step 40. In this step, a preference score is obtained for each(available) trusted owner of the mobile communication devices 212 ingroup 210. This score may for instance be retrieved from preferencerepository 130. This for instance may be advantageous in a situationwhere a user such as an elderly person feels more comfortable asking aclose relative such as a child, brother or sister to help rather than toask a distant relative such as a cousin or nephew.

The aforementioned example algorithm may be amended in any suitable wayto take such preferences into account. A non-limiting example of asuitable modification to the aforementioned algorithm is as follows. Leta_(i) denote an implicit multiplier to trusted owner i's time. Theimplicit multiplier corresponds to the preference rating of that trustedowner; for instance the value of this multiplier may be high for thosetrusted owners whose time is deemed more valuable by the user for anyreason. Moreover, the user may be reluctant to ask anyone for help. Thismay be expressed as an additional (constant) cost multiplier,irrespective of the time the completion of the task consumes. Let theadditional cost for trusted owner i be b_(i). Consequently, thegeneralized cost of asking a trusted owner to perform the requested taskis given as a function of their travel time, rather than as aminimization of the task completion time:min_(i∈{1, . . . ,N},j∈{1, . . . ,M},t∈[t) _(j1) _(,t) _(j2) _(])(a_(i)(TT(L _(i) ^(P)(t),L _(j) ^(S) ,t)+TT(L _(j) ^(S) ,L ₀ ,TT(L _(i)^(P)(t),L _(j) ^(S) ,t)+t))+b _(i)).

Using such an algorithm, the method 1 proceeds to step 60 in which thedesired task is assigned to a selected trusted owner of one of themobile communication devices 212. As previously explained, theassignment may be made by the user of the system 100 based on aselection of suitable candidate trusted owners generated by the system100 or alternatively may be automatically made by the system 100 in adeterministic manner, e.g. by assigning the task to the trusted ownerhaving the lowest cost score. The selected trusted owner may be informedof the task assignment in any suitable manner as previously explained,for instance by means of a text message, an automated phone call, ane-mail, a tweet and so on.

In an embodiment, the trusted owner may be required to confirmacceptance of the task within a defined period of time. In the absenceof such confirmation within that time period, the system 100 mayreassign the task to another trusted owner. This may be accompanied by amessage in any suitable form to the originally intended owner of thetask informing this trusted owner that the task has been reassigned inorder to avoid the same task being performed twice.

In an embodiment, the system 100 may check if the selected event or taskis classed as an emergency, for instance by querying the user or bychecking if the event or task is labeled as an emergency in the eventrepository 120. In case of such an emergency, the method 1 may furthercomprise the step of contacting a pre-designated primary contact person,physician or emergency call center (e.g. 911 in the USA or 999 in theUK) using any suitable way of contacting such a person or organizationas previously explained. This may for instance be a trusted owner ingroup 220. This step may be performed in combination with alerting atrusted owner from group 210, in which case the assigned task is tovisit the user of the system 100, e.g. as a matter of urgency.

The flowchart of the method 1 shown in FIG. 2 assumes a single locationwhere the task is to be performed. FIG. 3 depicts a flowchart of themethod 1 according to an alternative embodiment of the present inventionin which multiple candidate task locations may exist. This flowchart isidentical to the one shown in FIG. 2, with the difference that anadditional step 15 is present in which the most appropriate tasklocation is selected. As previously explained, the selection of thisappropriate task location may be based on the availability and/or priceof the service or product to be acquired at that location, the timerequired to deliver the service or product from that location to theuser of system 100, e.g. the elderly person, the amount of disruption toa daily routine of the candidate trusted owners to perform the task, ora combination thereof.

At this point, it is noted that parameters such as a_(i) and b_(i) inthe aforementioned algorithm may not be readily available. In anembodiment, the system 100 is adapted to learn to assign appropriatevalues to these parameters based on the past task assignment decisionsof the owner of the system 100 and similar owners of other instances ofthe system 100 as mentioned above. This may for instance be achieved bymaintaining, calibrating and periodically updating task response models,e.g. updating such models after every response to an event generating atask. Such response typically comprises the completion of the task, e.g.the delivery of a service or product to user of the system 100. Once theevent and the response has been completed, the user of the system 100may record the final action taken, e.g. the selection of task locationand/or trusted owner, the delay between task generation and taskcompletion and so on. This may for instance be captured as follows.

Let the final action be denoted by a binary variable y_(k) which equals1 if the k^(th) response scenario was followed. It may be assumed thatthis particular scenario was chosen by the user because its cost scorewas lower than the cost score of any of the other action plans. Thisinformation or data point can be used to update the values of parameterssuch as a_(i) and b_(i). This data point will be added to the alreadyexisting (i.e. previously collected) data points and the models will bere-estimated or recalibrated accordingly. It is noted that appropriatemachine learning algorithms and statistical methods to perform suchrecalibration are well known per se and it suffices to say that anysuitable algorithm and method may be used for this purpose.

A non-limiting example of such a learning method is to estimate amultinomial logit model where the appropriateness or utility of action kis given by an exponential function of its cost. For example, in thecase above, if the k^(th) scenario involves asking person i to help,then the utility of this scenario may be given by:u _(i) =a _(i)(TT(L _(i) ^(P)(t),L _(j) ^(S) ,t)+TT(L _(j) ^(S) ,L ₀,TT(L _(i) ^(P)(t),L _(j) ^(S) ,t)+t))+b _(i).

Multinomial logit models can be estimated using any standard statisticalpackage. In an embodiment, the past event or task response results fromthe user of the system 100 are given a higher weight than thecorresponding event or task response results from similar owners ofother instances of the system 100. The updated values of parameters suchas a_(i) and b_(i) are then used for all subsequent cost calculations.

An example aspect of an embodiment of a cost score calculation method(i.e. step 40 in FIGS. 2 and 3) is explained in more detail with the aidof the flowchart shown in FIG. 4. The method starts by proceeding tostep 310 in which one of the mobile communication devices 212 from thegroup 210 is selected. The method then proceeds to step 320 in which atask location is selected. In step 330, a travel distance or routebetween the present location (as determined in step 30) of the mobilecommunication device 212 and the task location is determined. This mayfor instance be achieved using routine route planning algorithms, as forinstance is known per se in the field of satellite navigation or otherroute planning fields. In step 340, environmental information such astraffic conditions, e.g. congestion or road works, and/or weatherconditions are obtained using the Internet 250 or any other suitablesource of such information as previously explained, after which a costscore is calculated in step 350 from the distance or route as obtainedin step 330 and the environmental information as obtained in step 340.

In an embodiment, the distance or route and environmental conditionsfrom the task location to the home of the user of the system 100 mayalso be included in this calculation, and as previously mentioned, otherfactors such as the preference score assigned by the user to thatparticular trusted owner may also be included in this calculation, ashas been explained in more detail above.

In step 360, it is checked if a cost score for the trusted owner of themobile communication device 212 has been calculated for all potentialtask locations. If more task locations require the calculation of thecost score, the method will return to step 320 to select the next tasklocation and calculate the cost score for that task location asexplained above. If on the other hand all task locations have beenconsidered for that particular trusted owner, the method proceeds tostep 370 in which it is checked if cost scores have been calculated forall trusted owners of the mobile communication devices 212 in the group210. If not all trusted owners have been considered, the method returnsto step 310 in which the next mobile communications device 212 isselected and the respective cost scores in relation to the one or moretask locations are calculated for the next mobile communications device212. This is repeated until all cost scores are calculated for allmobile communications devices 212, after which step 40 will terminate.

It is noted that it is of course equally feasible to change the order ofsome of the steps in FIG. 4 without departing from the teachings of thepresent invention. For instance, steps 310 and 320 as well as steps 360and 370 may be interchanged to arrive at an equally suitable embodiment.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 4 is particularly useful if the task to beassigned needs to be performed instantaneously or at least without unduedelay, in which case the actual location of the trusted owners of therespective mobile communication devices 212 is relevant. This may forinstance be an embodiment in which the cost score is calculated based onthe desire to minimize the inconvenience to the user of the system 100,e.g. to ensure that the desired product or service is delivered to theuser with minimal delay as previously explained.

However, the user of the system 100, e.g. the elderly person, mayspecify that a certain event or task does not require urgent attention,for instance because the user does not have an urgent need for aparticular service or product. In this case, the user may specify that acertain task needs completing at or by a certain time in the future,e.g. later that day. In this embodiment, the present location of atrusted owner of a mobile communications device 212 may be of limitedrelevance for the purpose of calculation of the cost score, as thelocation of the trusted owner may change, for instance because thetrusted owner has left work and has commenced the journey home. In thiscase, it will be necessary to somehow predict the relevant location ofthe trusted owner near the time the user has requested that the task isperformed in order to obtain a meaningful cost score for that user. FIG.5 shows a flowchart of an example embodiment of step 40 in which thisproblem is addressed.

The method starts by proceeding to step 410 in which a mobilecommunication device 212 is selected from the group 210 as previouslyexplained. The method then proceeds to step 420 in which a likely routeto be taken from the present location of the trusted owner of the devicearound the time at which the task needs to be performed is selected,e.g. extrapolated. One possible way of selecting his route is byallowing the trusted owner to make travel plans for the rest of the dayavailable to the system 100. This for instance can be achieved byspecifying a destination address for an appointment in their calendar.For instance, the trusted owner may indicate that they have a dentistappointment, music lesson, garage visit and so on scheduled from 6 to 7pm in a specific location such as a nearby town. The system 100 may usethis information to calculate the future location of the trusted ownerof the mobile communications device 212 at any later point in the day instep 430. This may for instance be achieved using well-known routeplanning algorithms as previously mentioned. Next, a candidate tasklocation may be selected in step 440 and a cost score may be calculatedfrom the distance between the future location extrapolated in step 430and the task location selected in step 440. As before, the cost scorecalculation may also include a cost score component for the distancebetween the task location and the home of the user of the system 100,e.g. an elderly person.

In this embodiment, because the cost score is calculated for a task tobe performed in the future, it may not always be possible to obtainenvironmental information for the various routes under consideration. Inthis case, the cost score may simply be based on distance travelled oron total time it will cost a trusted owner to complete the task assumingnormal traffic conditions. On the other hand, such environmentalconditions may be predictable, for instance because certain routesalways suffer from congestion at certain times of the day or becauseroad closures or road works have been announced affecting such routes,in which case of course a more complex or intelligent cost score may beobtained as previously explained.

This process may be repeated for all potential task locations as checkedin step 460 and for all mobile communication devices 212 in group 210 aschecked in step 470 and as explained in more detail with the aid of FIG.4 (corresponding steps 360 and 370). Once all mobile communicationdevices 212 and potential task locations have been considered in thecalculation of the respective cost scores, the cost score method mayterminate, after which method 1 may proceed to step 50 or 60 aspreviously explained.

It is of course not always possible to predict a future location of oneor more of the trusted owners of the mobile communication devices 212from information volunteered by them, e.g. in diaries that areaccessible by the system 100. Therefore, in an embodiment the system 100may be adapted to recognize typical patterns in the daily schedules ofthe respective trusted owners. This may for instance be achieved bytracking the location of the trusted owner over a certain period oftime, e.g. several days, weeks or even months, to allow the system 100to recognize movement patterns of the trusted owner, such as time whenthe trusted typically departs home, reaches office, the days of weekwhen the trusted owner goes out to a particular restaurant forlunch/dinner and so on.

Using this information, the system 100 can select an appropriatemovement pattern, from which a present location at the time of issue ofthe task as well as a future location near the time the task requiresperforming can be extrapolated. It is important to recognize that thisdoes not require the system 100 to acquire location information at thetime the task to be performed is generated in step 10 of method 1, asthe system 100 can instead use the established migration patterns of thetrusted owners to select the appropriate migration pattern for thatparticular day and retrieve the required location information byextrapolation from the appropriate migration pattern. In other words,the system 100 in this embodiment estimates the likely future locationsof the respective trusted owners at a relevant later point in time anduses the estimated future location rather than a (present) positiondetermined in real-time to calculate the relevant cost scores, e.g.travel times, for the relevant point in time in the future.

In an embodiment, the system 100 can adapt the set of routes associatedwith a trusted owner based on additional location tracking informationof the mobile communication device 212 of the trusted owner. Forinstance, the system 100 may continue to gather such location trackinginformation after establishing a set of routes in order to improve theaccuracy of the routes and/or to add new routes or delete no longer usedroutes from the set.

In an embodiment, the system 100 may verify the actual location of thetrusted owner by means of actual location information and use thedetermined actual location to select the appropriate likely route thetrusted owner will take that day. For instance, by determining that theactual location of the trusted owner is his or her workplace, thepreviously determined route from work to home may be selected as thelikely route the trusted owner will take when leaving work, and thefuture location may be extrapolated from that likely route.

Although the above description has discussed assigning tasks to a mobiledevice associated with a trusted owner; it is observed that preferablythe mobile communication devices associated with the trusted owner arealso carried by the trusted owner. As a result it is possible to infer,throughout the assignment of tasks, that the location of the mobilecommunication device substantially corresponds with that of theassociated trusted owner.

In preferred embodiments the association between mobile communicationdevices and trusted owner is one wherein each mobile communicationdevice can be uniquely identified and each mobile communication deviceis associated to a singular trusted owner. In the event mobilecommunication devices can be associated to trusted owners dynamically,such association should be registered separately. If the association isstatic, the mobile communication device and trusted owner can beconsidered to represent a singular entity. An example of a dynamicassociation is described below.

In a medical emergency scenario dynamic association may be modelled asfollows. The mobile communication device may be a mobile phone or apager that can be uniquely identified. At the start of the shift anemployee in question may take a mobile communication device from a setof mobile communication devices and may manually or automaticallyassociate it to his name. As a result the association between the mobilecommunication device and the employee thus is unique and can be usedduring task assignment.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned embodiments illustraterather than limit the invention, and that those skilled in the art willbe able to design many alternative embodiments without departing fromthe scope of the appended claims. In the claims, any reference signsplaced between parentheses shall not be construed as limiting the claim.The word “comprising” does not exclude the presence of elements or stepsother than those listed in a claim. The word “a” or “an” preceding anelement does not exclude the presence of a plurality of such elements.The invention can be implemented by means of hardware comprising severaldistinct elements. In the device claim enumerating several means,several of these means can be embodied by one and the same item ofhardware. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutuallydifferent dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of thesemeasures cannot be used to advantage.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for assigninga task to a mobile communication device belonging to a pool of mobilecommunication devices, wherein each mobile communications device isassociated with a trusted owner and is locatable by means of mobiletelephony signals, the method comprising: generating a task to beperformed for a user; generating a set of task locations at which thetask can be performed; receiving, at a mobile receiver incorporated intothe mobile communications device, the mobile telephony signals for themobile communications devices; deriving a location for individual mobilecommunication devices from the mobile telephony signals; determining acost score for individual mobile communication devices using the derivedlocation of the individual mobile communication devices and individualtask locations in the set of task locations, wherein the cost score isexpressed in time; assigning a preference score to one or more trustedowners, the preference score indicating the user's one or more preferredtrusted owners; modifying the determined cost score using the preferencescore; assigning the task to a communication device and a task locationresponsive to the communication device having a modified cost scorebelow a pre-defined cost score threshold; and transmitting, by a mobiletransmitter incorporated into the mobile communications device, theassigned task to the one of the mobile communication devices.
 2. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the task includes thedelivery of an item to a destination, and wherein the cost score furthercomprises travel information based upon the task location and thedestination.
 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein thecost score comprises travel conditions between the location of theindividual mobile communication device and the task location.
 4. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the task to be performedat a task location is to be performed at a later point in time, themethod further comprising: tracking the location of the mobilecommunication devices using the received mobile telephony signals; andfor individual mobile communication devices, determining a set of routescommonly used by its trusted owner from the tracked locations; whereinthe step of deriving the location comprises: selecting a likely routefrom the set of routes; and extrapolating a future location of thetrusted owner at the later point in time from the selected route; andwherein the cost score comprises travel information based upon the tasklocation and the extrapolated future location.
 5. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 4, further comprising adapting theset of routes associated with a trusted owner based on additionallocation tracking information of the mobile communication device of theowner.
 6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the stepof generating the task comprises selecting the task from a pool oftasks, the method further comprising: accessing a list of mobilecommunication devices each associated with a trusted owner, wherein eachtrusted owner is associated with a subset of the tasks; and dynamicallycreating the pool of mobile communication devices by selecting trustedowners associated with the generated task in the subset.
 7. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising dynamicallycreating the pool of mobile communication devices from a list of mobilecommunication devices each associated with a trusted owner based onavailability information for the trusted owners.
 8. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the task includes thepurchase of an article, and wherein the set of task locations iscompiled from a plurality of task locations based on at least one ofavailability information and price information of the article at thetask locations.
 9. A mobile communication device belonging to a pool ofmobile communication devices, wherein each mobile communications deviceis associated with a trusted owner and is locatable by means of mobiletelephony signals, the mobile communication device comprising one ormore processors configured by machine-readable instructions to: generatea task to be performed for a user; generate a set of task locations atwhich the task can be performed; receive, at a mobile receiverincorporated into the mobile communications device, the mobile telephonysignals for the mobile communications devices; derive a location forindividual mobile communication devices from the mobile telephonysignals; determine a cost score for individual mobile communicationdevices using the derived location of the individual mobilecommunication devices and individual task locations in the set of tasklocations, wherein the cost score is expressed in time; assigning apreference score to each trusted owner, the preference score indicatingthe user's preferred trusted owners; modifying the determined cost scoreusing the preference score; assign the task to a communication deviceand a task location responsive to the communication device having amodified cost score below a pre-defined cost score threshold; andtransmitting, by a mobile transmitter incorporated into the mobilecommunications device, the assigned task to the one of the mobilecommunication devices.
 10. A mobile communication device belonging to apool of mobile communication devices, wherein each mobile communicationsdevice is associated with a trusted owner and is locatable by means ofmobile telephony signals, the mobile communication device comprising:means for generating a task to be performed for a user; means forgenerating a set of task locations at which the task can be performed;means for receiving, at a mobile receiver incorporated into the mobilecommunications device, the mobile telephony signals for the mobilecommunications devices; means for deriving a location for individualmobile communication devices from the mobile telephony signals; meansfor determining a cost score for individual mobile communication devicesusing the derived location of the individual mobile communicationdevices and individual task locations in the set of task locations,wherein the cost score is expressed in time; means for assigning apreference score to each trusted owner, the preference score indicatingthe user's preferred trusted owners; means for modifying the determinedcost score using the preference score; and means for assigning the taskto a communication device and a task location responsive to thecommunication device having a modified cost score below a pre-definedcost score threshold; and means for transmitting, by a mobiletransmitter incorporated into the mobile communications device, theassigned task to the one of the mobile communication devices.
 11. Thesystem of claim 9, further comprising a database architecture includinga list of trusted owners of mobile communication devices, a list ofevents and a list of event response logs.